Employee Rights

Here is a little news story that probably didn't get much notice. To steal someone else's phrase, employees have rights, but not the right to know they have rights.

In 2011, the National Labor Relations Board issued a rule that employers had to post an informational notice in the workplace declaring essentially that workers have the right to join together to seek better pay and working conditions, with or without a union, that it is illegal to punish workers for trying to form a union, and that it is also illegal for unions to coerce employees to support a union. The notice also declares that, in unionized workplaces, the law requires both sides to bargain in good faith.

The good old dependable U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups filed a suit in federal court to prohibit implementation of this NLRB rule, and yesterday the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia ruled in their favor, saying that the NLRB requirement to post this information violated the employers' rights of free speech!! As someone else wrote, let's hope business groups don't take a dislike to clearly marked Exit signs.

The appeals court in DC is the court that has had four vacancies, and senate republicans are refusing to let any of Obama's nominees come up for a vote.  In fact, instead of acting on the nominees, the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have announced their intention to introduce legislation that would reduce the number of seats on the DC appeals court from 11 to 8. Proposing an even number of judges is an indication of how bright they are.